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What kind of a trade union is SACTWU?

Submitted by Jeremy Seekings on 26 January, 2016 - 11:41

In a new article, in the Review of African Political Economy, Nicoli Nattrass and Jeremy Seekings examine the business interests of the South African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (SACTWU). In the 2000s SACTWU has come to depend on its political alliance with the governing party not only for the regulation of wages and industrial policies but also for Black Economic Empowerment policies that helped it to acquire massive shareholdings, including in the largest clothing manufacturer. Nattrass and Seekings argue that the union acquired a stake in ‘casino capitalism’, both literally (through shares in casinos) and figuratively (through its financial investments), whilst relying on government to stack the odds in its favour. Nattrass and Seekings continue to work on the decline of South Africa's clothing industry.